“We will keep demanding an economy that works in the interests of workers and places public ownership at its heart.”
Apsana Begum MP spoke at the “Irreversible Shift in the Balance of Power and Wealth fringe organised by Arise: a Festival of Left Ideas at TUC Conference 2026. You can read her speech in full below.
I want to begin by expressing my solidarity with the striking workers everywhere, including in my constituency where many housing workers, leisure centre workers, teaching and support and health visitors have felt no choice but to have to take strike action over the last few weeks.
In the first few months under the new Labour leadership, there has been a desperate attempt to demonstrate a clean break with the politics of Starmerism.
From foreign policy to internal Party culture, we are being promised that things will be new and they will be different.
Whether this will be a mirage or reflect the reality relies on the very stark choices that the Prime Minister makes over the coming months – not least in the upcoming Budget.
It is obvious to so many of us that people want a radical reset on economic policymaking. They don’t want tinkering around the edges; they want the economy to be transformed.
They know it is possible.
They know that that wage growth in real terms has been suppressed in this country for nearly twenty years.
They know that Chief Executive pay has exploded, while people’s rents, bills, train fares, groceries, and everything else have rocketed in price, month by month.
They know that its cuts to our public services that have left communities incredibly vulnerable. I know this all too well as in East London, we are seeing redundancies being forced through at our schools and our hospitals.
And they know that people are being locked out of work and for those in work, exploitation is still rife despite some new protections in last year’s Employment Rights Act.
It is no wonder that many people, so many workers, remain disillusioned and demoralised by the economic status quo.
It’s why we are hearing this new government make signals about wanting to end “40 years of neoliberalism”, to correct course on the terrible decisions made since Thatcher.
But that is easier said than done.
The truth we cannot stand by and allow language of our critique of neoliberalism, capitalism, and exploitation – to be co-opted and for it then for it not to lead to the real change needed.
What is said against neoliberalism will be rendered meaningless – completely meaningless – if our Government is not willing to end the disastrous experiments in privatisation that have robbed our country of hundreds of billions of pounds.
In water, firms are operating like a criminal racket, discharging thousands hours of raw sewage into waterways, hiking bills each year – with almost a hundred billion pounds in dividends since privatisation.
When the public are absolutely incensed about it, I cannot accept the Government backing away from even the idea of using Special Administration measures, even for Thames Water.
And so, we should be having a conversation about taking ALL water firms into public ownership and the public – and I have to say, I really believe that even the right-leaning members of the public, will be behind us on this all the way.
At the end of the day the point on neoliberalism is the same across water as it is in health, as it is in rail, education.
Where private interests have to gain a grip in these industries, it doesn’t come with an easy ‘off’ switch that democratic socialists can just flick when we’re in, or near, power.
So to actually stand up to neoliberalism, to rebalance power in our economy, will require having fights with market forces and their representatives, and it is because of the hollowed-out state under neoliberalism that we are in hock to the bond markets.
The truth is that all of the new Labour leader’s potential will rise or fall, based on what is decided on budgets.
If the Chancellor is instructed to trot out the Treasury orthodoxy of Reeves, then no announcements on bus fares will be able to help.
We will need to see a truly transformative shift on the question of public ownership, not public control – and crucially we need to see that decisions are being made prioritising workers, working families, and the economically vulnerable.
Now, when the last Labour Government and leadership decided that there were cuts to be made, they immediately launched into a continuation of austerity – and were surprised when even milder elements of the PLP could not stomach cuts to PIP and Winter Fuel payments.
But it is no surprise that their constituents, those who support Labour and those who don’t, are absolutely sick and tired of every ‘tough’ decision falling the hardest on the shoulders of the working class.
We will not stand for it any longer, when wealth and opportunity are already so unevenly distributed.
Instead, we will keep demanding an economy that works in the interests of workers and places public ownership at its heart.
That’s what an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth looks like.
- Apsana Begum is the Member of Parliament for Poplar and Limehouse – you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram and TikTok.
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